Swindle and Starscream's Little Surprise
by MeowthTwo
Summary: Swindle catches Sam for information and to please Starscream but things don’t go the way he planned.
1. Chapter 1

Swindle and Starscream's Little Surprise.

Summary: Swindle catches Sam for information and to please Starscream but things don't go the way he planned.

Disclaimer: Transformers and human chatacters within this story belong to Hasbro and Dreamworks/Paramount, not me.

Rating: M for scenes of torture.

A/N: This contains ideas that Littlemewlugia and I have worked on together.

Swindle and Starscream's Little Surprise.

Swindle hummed in triumph as he prepared to break the bones of the Witwicky squishy who had destroyed the All Spark and Megatron, kindly brought in by Wreckage, who had caught him by chance out with his guardian.

They had not reckoned on meeting the grey camo tank's gang in Tranquility and Bumblebee's comm had been shot so he could not call for help. After dragging them back to the Decepticon base, Swindle had started on the yellow scout first. He had not yielded the pass key number for the base but maybe he would if he heard his fleshy charge's screams.

Horrible noises came from it as he leaned down on an arm, though at first it had defiantly kept silent. Red liquid came from it. Perhaps pressure on one of the lower limbs would make it scream. It did.

"What is the number you type in to enter the Autobot base? What is the frequency of the force-field ?" he asked as a token attempt at interrogation, but he was just enjoying himself.

"I-I don't know !" was the only coherent reply he got, breathily through gritted teeth.

It was getting too messy. He went back to see if it had made any difference to the Autobot Scout, comm-ing Starscream as he anticipated an answer soon and then they would be able to plan their spying raid.

Starscream came down and appeared at the door of Bumblebee's cell just as the yellow youngling scout was saying "Don't hurt him any more! I'll tell you what you want to know- he's more vulnerable than we are and his brain cannot hold so many figures!" The crying from next door weakened and stopped.

"I won't tell you if he's dead, there's no point!" Bumblebee said angrily. Several parts of him were blackened and sparking or broken, and he felt like crying too.

"You 'll do anything I want or I'll take your Spark," called Swindle.

"Then I won't be able to tell you anything."

"Logical even if you are stupid, Autobot scum," said Starscream. "I will check for you, I think I might like to analyze human energon."

He went out.

The Autobot had even been smart with that answer, but he was not going to tell him so. In fact he was more than just scientifically curious, the boy had an interesting personality and a strong spirit, he would have liked to see how it would break. He looked into Sam's cell. Sam seemed too overcome by physical privations to care.

Starscream went in. The boy was shaking, with an immobile crushed leg. Starscream reached out to touch him, at first not noticing the faint blue light that surrounded him. Starscream felt it ask him _'Can I borrow your pattern?' _He recognised it as All Spark energy, stronger than his, and consented.

When the staticky sparks and haze cleared, there was a winglet, a winged sparkling. "Is that you, Sam?" asked Starscream in disbelief.

The sparkling clicked and whirred at him, shuttering and unshuttering its optics. He picked it up and carried it back to Bumblebee.

"Sam has been changed." he said. "There was All Spark energy but no sign of any other being, so this must be him."

"Is that really you, Sam?" asked Bumblebee. "Sam?" He looked up at Starscream, about to accuse him of some sort of duplicity, or switching Sam for the sparkling, but could tell from Starscream's confused expression that he was telling the truth.

The sparkling clicked and whirred at Bumblebee also, and whimpered.

"I'm sorry Sam, I failed you," said Bumblebee, "You didn't go to college and have babies with Mikaela."

Seeker-sparkling-Sam cried in a metallic whine because his friend was distressed, and he was being held by his enemy. Or at least, that's how it seemed to his vague spark-memory.

Starscream put him into Bumblebee's arms. "I will have to teach him to fly, but you and I can be like his creators." he said.

Bumblebee sang to Sam. Starscream crooned to him too, but Sam reached for the blue rounded optics and smooth yellow lines of the Autobot scout. He only quieted to Bumblebee's voice and gentle rocking.

"What about our raid on the Autobot base?" said Swindle.

"It will have to be postponed. I want his co-creator repaired and our sparkling happy," said Starscream.

"Y-yes Lord Starscream" Swindle said. Grumbling, he commed Dr Syn, the Medic. Then he shook, for in Cybertronian terms they were both younglings, and he would not have liked to have killed one, and Starscream was his leader now. This way they might still be able to get some fuel out of it, or kudos against Optimus. What was he going to do if Starscream was upset with him for a long time, and his fellow Decepticons? They could make life very difficult for him more than withdrawal of privileges. They could bully him and keep him short of fuel, or even not talk to him at all

The doctor arrived, and set to on repairing Bumblebee, who was a mess. He also brought Starscream some formula energon for the sparkling.

"You are to clean up the End cell," Starscream said to Swindle, "for going too far and asking stupid questions. The Autobots are not likely to have let him know the frequency of the force-field. As he is a sparkling now, we cannot ask to access the power of the All Spark."

He cooed at the sparkling, but Sam would only let Bumblebee feed him.

Swindle went off grumbling. The end cell, where Sam had been put, was particularly damp and mouldy, with things growing down the walls. Being too small for Cybertronians it was used primarily for human prisoners and no-one ever cleared it up. So it stank and had bloodstains and other stains on the floor. Although it was disgusting, he settled himself to clearing it up, thanking the Unmaker that Starscream had not given him some other punishment.

A shiver ran through his servos: it was very unlikely Starscream did not have something worse in mind. He would always be Swindle the schemer, the torturer, never the glorious soldier winning battles, getting the femme, giving her a sparkling and bringing home the treasure. Well, some treasure had come by his efforts, and it was not that he never got out of the base, and he didn't want to be a goody goody hero, but a difference of pace would be nice, or a reward for his efforts.

When he was repaired, Bumblebee called Sam's parents.

"Sam's doing something different with us, he's safe but he won't be back for a bit. Can you look after Mojo?"

Sam's parents sounded very grateful to know he was safe, but how could he tell them their teenage son was a sparkling in arms? He cycled out air through his vents in a sigh. Sam only understood that his friend was sad and started crying nervously. Bumblebee rocked him and gave him some more formula.

"It's OK Sam," he said. "I will look after you and keep you safe. And Starscream will teach you to fly. It doesn't matter that you're only a little sparkling. Like a human baby, you don't need to do much at first. Just be happy. We'll get out of here somehow."

Sam's little silver hand touched Bumblebee's shiny yellow hide and blue fire came out of it, decorating his protector with blue and gold All Spark Guardian colours.

"Look!" said the amazed scout, taking him over to Starscream. "He gave me my colours! Will you be protecting him too?"

"Yes," said Starscream, taking Sam gently and looking at Bumblebee in amazement "I said I would and I will." The feeling inside him surprised him. He did not often say words that anyone could trust, and he did not know how he would keep this promise, but he was determined to try.

As Starscream took Sam from Bumblebee to give him a cuddle, thin gold and red stripes - red being the other colour for All Spark Guardians - spread over his wings and fuselage too from the blue fire that surrounded the little sparkling.

He suddenly felt that he was involved in something that was bigger than he was. "Come on little All Spark," he said, taking him to Frenzy's headless body in their medbay, "I'm going to see if you can heal!"

The body in question was the one Mikaela had sawed the head off in the breaking yard after the fight with Bumblebee. Barricade had retrieved it for him. The one the All Spark had regenerated for him at the Hoover Dam had been damaged by Simmons' flamethrower and the head cut in half by one his own discs. The Decepticons had managed to retrieve the half head from Sector Seven, leaving a fake one in its place, but for some reason it would not work in spite of Frenzy's diffuse neural net, so it had been left apart.

Starscream put Sam down near it . "Go on, ask the All Spark to heal him," he said. "Soundwave misses him. He does not say anything about it, but I can tell, from the way he treats me and Barricade."

Sam's little steel fingers glowed blue and the head joined to the body. All Frenzy's lights lit up and his arms and legs moved. "Thanks All Spark!" he said, springing to his feet and flexing all four of his hands experimentally. " Be seein' ya!" He then ran off excitedly, with a couple of hyperactive bounces, and folded up into Soundwave's chest.

"Both of you aren't very good Guardians!" scolded Dr Syn the medic. "You haven't taken him for his first health check yet! And why not see if he needs language programming so he can express some views of his own on what he wants to do?" He rubbed the little sparkling's back and Sam belched gently as the doctor let air out of the valve. Then he took him for an oil change, greased his joints and gave Bumblebee some special polish for him.

Once the language programming was started off he could soon say words in Decepticon, Autobot, and something that might have been ancient Cybertronian.

"Don't we ground forces get any share in this All Spark power?" grumbled Barricade after successfully teaching Sam 'Decepticons mobilize', 'Starscream' and his own name. "Couldn't he bring back Megatron?"

"That will depend when and if he and the All Spark want to," said Starscream. "I suggest you do him some favours, like getting him some fuel and doing the job all policemen hate worst!"

"What telling his parents he's dead? I could do that, it would give me some experience of dealing with flesh-bags, which we will have to learn eventually, living on this little dirt-ball rock that's not even fit for the Unmaker to eat!"

Sam started crying. He did not like the tone of Barricade's voice, and now he could understand it was his world and his parents being talked about.

"That's enough! It won't help if you've just insulted his parents and his planet, and he's probably still scared of Megatron!" said Dr Syn firmly.

"I'll go to and stand look out for you," said Swindle "I want to get out of this base and do something about this business." He was not just pissed because he had been punished for doing just what he normally did, but because it was rather boring watching Starscream sparkling- sitting rather than leading them against the humans or Autobots.

"Why don't you give him a chance to recharge?" said Dr Syn. "He must be tired. I'm sure some of us could do with one too." Barricade glared at the medic, but Dr Syn matched him and soon won the staring match. Barricade angrily slunk off. They all decided that it would be a good idea if they recharged.

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

"Right! He's a Seeker, so next, he will have to learn to fly," said Starscream.

"Er excuse me, Starscream but aren't you forgetting something? Doesn't he need to learn to transform first?" said Bumblebee

"We Seekers can fly in robot _or_ alt-form" said Starscream.

"Walk first, he'll have to learn that, but as he is in my form he'll learn it all together. Come on Sam and Bumblebee, let's do it!"

Bumblebee picked up Sam and they went out to a little-used airfield. The Base was in a remote area and the Command Trine could take off from it anyway, but Sam would need real planes to copy and a runway to learn to take off from.

Bumblebee was delighted to find he could still carry him in his driving seat as he had before, because Sam had not changed too much in shape and size.

"Just get out and lean on me," Bumblebee commed to Sam "Put your hand out, palm out, and scan the aircraft you want." Bumblebee demonstrated the gesture.

Sam scanned a small two-seater plane. With Bumblebee's and Starscream's help he started learning to walk, which because of his shape was more like hopping like a kangaroo or big bird. It was evening, the best time to learn to fly, Starscream said, because of the warm thermals coming up from the land or off the sea, and he was quite excited.

Meanwhile Barricade and Swindle went to the Witwicky home.

Ron answered the door.

"Mr Witwicky?" Said Barricade. "I have some bad news for you

"It's about Sam isn't it? We got a non-definite message a few hours ago."

"He has been involved in an accident with a car. Can I come in? Would you like to sit down?"

"Are you gonna prosecute the other driver?" asked Ron.

"Unfortunately they did not stay around, but we will keep looking," said Barricade.

"A hit and run? Oh Shit!"

"So you want us to come and identify whether it is Sam?" Said Judy shakily.

This was unexpected , but do-able. He had studied human bereavement behaviour slightly, they would deny death until they had evidence.

"Yes." He checked with Swindle about doing a hologram of Sam.

"Easy," said Swindle "I have clear memories of how he last looked, and it's a holoform not a hologram, they could even touch him, I could make it as solid as you like, even with fake congealed blood!"

They located a small morgue with no coroners and just duty staff on. "Morgue grunt staff find the place rather creepy and cold so they want to just get the job done quickly." said Barricade.

Unfortunately they got a small staff member who was a stickler for regulations.

"I want a video or Police report of the accident, a hospital report , death certificate, police report and crime number for every stiff!" he said.

"Police camera video we could mock up," conmmed Barricade to Swindle. "Reports can be written, but for hacked-into-the-computer official numbers we will have to ask Soundwave."

Turning around, annoyed at the time constraints, they returned to the base.


	2. Chapter 2

Sam and Starscream's Little Surprise Chapter 2

"CONSENT NOT GIVEN!" was SoundWave's unnerving reply when he was consulted.

In a pinch, Barricade could have done it all himself, but it was a base rule that all official internet statements were run past SoundWave in case the Decepticons contradicted each other's plans. Moreover, if you didn't, he was bound to find out, and there might be trouble.

"Why ? Please state your logical reasons, Commander Soundwave. Surely Frenzy and I could easily run up such reports." said the black and white mech disappointedly.

"DiFFICULTY OF TASK NOT THE ISSUE.

LOGICAL REASON 1, ALLSPARK GUARDIAN BUMBLEBEE HAS ALREADY INFORMED FLESHLING CREATOR THE FLESHLING SAM WITWICKY SURVIVES. LOGICAL REASON 2, THEY AND AUTOBOTS WOULD BE ANGERED AND DISTRESSED IF WE TOLD THEM THIS AS SAM WITWICKY IS A SPARKLING. LOGICAL REASON 3, STARSCREAM-

"O, SO Megatron's logical sucessor is taking commands from Starscream now?" asked Barricade angrily.

"DO NOT INTERRUPT ME,

BARRICADE, YOUR POSITION ON EARTH IS EASILY PINPOINTABLE TO MY SONIC CANNON. LOGICAL REASON 3, AIR COMMANDER STARSCREAM HAS ALREADY REQUESTED THAT THE WITWICKY FLESHLING BE SWAPPED WITH THE AUTOBOTS FOR FUEL. SITUATION WAR.

FLESHLING AND AUTOBOT ANGER NOT A PRIORITY, NEED FOR FUEL A PRIORITY. LOGICAL AND ECONOMIC POSITION WHEN RESOURCES SCARCE, POSSIBILITY OF INJUSTICE. RESOLVING PEACE TALKS BEST OPTION. AIR COMMANDER STARSCREAM NO LONGER IN CHARGE. CONSENT MUST BE OBTAINED FROM THE ALLSPARK."

Barricade shuddered and hissed through his vents quietly, realising that he would get no further help from Soundwave, and this meant he had to talk with Sam - who, after all, was the one he was currying favour with. This was how you had to deal with a commander who read minds.

"Affirmative, I'll do that, your logic is impeccable, as always, Commander SoundWave," he sent, "Communication Over and Out."

He zoomed to the Airfield and explained what he wanted to do fast, hoping to confuse Sam by the rapidity of his conclusions.

"So, can I do this, Allspark -Sam? " he commed.

However there was nothing wrong with the little winglet's logic circuits.

"If you want to do me a favour, please don't tell my parents I'm dead, I don't want to go to my own funeral!" commed Sam. "Tell them I'm in hospital, military base hospital, then you can all come to the Autobot base and the Allspark promises you can all get fuelled, recharged and enjoy good energon! I'll even try for what it tells me you really want.

Megatron!"

He stretched out his little steel arms, blue fire came out of them, exploded and another winglet appeared from the cloud on the grass beside him.

Seeing that Megatron was in his last form of a robot/interstellar jet, Starscream exclaimed, comming his Trine-mates "Excellent! Another winglet to train!"

The Seekers set to, giving the winglets pre-flight checks and briefing, then taking them up into the air, throwing them one to the other and teaching them how to roll and turn.

Sam and Megatron were tossed between Thundercracker and Skywarp, with Starscream flying beneath them in case anything went wrong. After the initial shock of not knowing you were going to be caught, it was okay, Sam found, but it was a long screaming initial shock.

Bumblebee left them to it for a while, but then he could not stand it and came up to help catch and teach Sam with his Jet-Pack, that he' d found and asked for from the Decepticon Medbay. He found his friend was even more grateful than he had been as a human, as all this was new to him.

Megatron giggled and growled as his spark remembered the freedom of flying, and Sam gasped in fear then wonder. After half an hour Sam called a break and asked to take up his friends Miles and Mikaela to see if they enjoyed this.

"I did not intend to reveal the secret of the All spark to anyone else yet, but as a Seeker winglet you are showing initiative, and of course you want to fly under your own wing power as soon as possible. Your second lesson will be at the Autobot base, when we have all refuelled, " said Starscream.

The ground vehicles had been watching, and Barricade left Megatron with Soundwave and Starscream for the moment, but shouted encouragement to him.

"Come on," growled Barricade to Swindle "We'll have to cancel! The instructions of the Allspark must be obeyed!"

Swindle ran up his usual official unmilitary holoform, that of a sales representative in gray lounge suit, red tie and pork pie hat. He fixed the cancellation with the mortuary grunt, who was, under his stiff shirt front, thankful that he did not have to fill in all the paperwork. Barricade went to see Sam's parents again, and Swindle caught him up.

Barricade rang the doorbell and was again answered by Ron Witwicky.

"You will be relieved to know that there has been a mistake, Mr Witwicky."

"Hunh? What kind of mistake?"

"Your son is not dead, he has been taken to hospital at the nearest military base. We have found a witness." He beckoned Swindle over.

"Yes, I saw it , a big motherfucking red-eyed robot was involved " said Swindle. "He was knocked unconscious and has been taken to the nearest military base at Nellis. Please come." He pointed at his alt and Barricade's outside. To his chagrin, both Ron and Judy trusted Barricade's police officer and car form, but it was no paint off his hide, human insects usually did. The black and white Mech liked to be trusted that way, it was so much nicer when he could pull the wool over their eyes. As for himself, Swindle was glad he only had to pretend his hologram was driving, and not get sticky or wet human fluids on the seats of his alt. form.

"Judy! Get your coat, I knew there was something fishy about this !" called Ron. Judy grabbed a book of family photos and Sam's green ipod from his room to give him things to recognise about them. She

definitely did not trust that flashy salesman witness, he might have been drunk!

Barricade was slightly worried that Sam would not be in the base when they got there. However, they had to face 4 hours of traffic jams in the driving wind and rain and 3 hours of military checks and protocol before they were let in.

By that time, Bumblebee, who faced less protocol because he had been there before on military business, had already got in by another entrance, with Ironhide and Optimus who had the highest military clearance anyway and the fliers, having negotiated a meeting via com under the Treaty of Iacon, flew in separately with permission to land via the Air Control tower. Will had picked up Sam 's girlfriend Mikaela and friend Miles who was looking after the dogs Mason and Mojo at the time.

Miles did not have any military clearance and was surprised to find it provided for him by Starscream's holoform and Will who had seen him greet Sam when he took him home after the battle. This just made Mikaela more suspicious though.

"Where's Sam? What's happened to him?" She asked

Ratchet appeared at the door of the hanger and said " That's what we all want to know, but I believe fuel has been requested. It is available in here, then we can start on the explanations." He started dispensing it into the Seeker's fuel valves, while Ironhide gave out the ground vehicle fuel. Captain Lennox brought out a jug of coffee for the humans and when he saw their faces, brought out his hip flask as well.

"Have a drink of something , you'll need it after the wait at least!" He said "This is Ironhide and that's Ratchet by the way."

Ron grabbed the flask and took a sip, and as there were paper cups available Judy poured coffee for them and Mikaela and Miles, and Will who said he took it black with 4 sugars. Sarah did not allow him that amount at home, she thought he should be losing weight, but here he thought he could work it off with the training in an hour or so. Judy gave it to him as she felt like a non-skinny latte herself, but Mikaela did not want to drink as there was a lump in her throat, and she did not think it would go till she had seen Sam, safe if not well. Miles ,also seemed distracted and said "Just a regular coffee, hot strong and sweet, thank you Mrs Witwicky."

Judy remembered her teen years when a flattering date would have added "just like you!" before they even knew her. That was what she had liked about Ron, while he loved coffee, sports and cars like the rest of the guys, he wasn't pretentious, he actually cared. She got out some of the photographs and got Sam's favorite music playing on his ipod. Thank goodness he had showed her how to work the thing.

They entered another curtained-off part of the hangar and Ratchet said: "Prepare yourselves, Sam will be different."

The music had the desired effect - Sam turned his head towards it, saw the photo and said "Hi Mom, that's me and you and Dad at the Lookout . Thanks for bringing my music."

Judy had expected to see her son surrounded by machinery. She had not expected to see the machinery talk. True the robots talked here, some with amazingly soft, non metallic humanlike voices but was that the only way Sam could speak now?

"What's happened?" Asked Mikaela .

"Is this some kind of a joke?" asked Ron.

Only Miles said:

"Sam? Bro? Is that You?"

Sam's reply was drowned out by Judy shrieking "That little metal monstrosity is not my son! Where is he? What have you done with him? This is a conspiracy! I demand to see the General-my Congressman- the President! At Once!"

"I demand an explanation!" shouted Ron.

Winglet Sam started crying.

Starscream and Bumblebee started forward. Captain Lennox waved them back calmingly, and met Tech. Sergeant Epps eyes. It was up to them to keep this situation from escalating.

"You take Starscream, I'll talk to the parents," Will said.

"Good luck man, I've got the easier job!" said Epps, listening to Judy's hysterical screams.

Taking the mechs aside with a motion of his arms he said "Why don't you get a wash and polish and take Sam for a refuel now you have the chance? At the moment you all smell of oil and metal to them. Even go for a flight, it might help you to think of something believable to say."

"What you are saying makes sense, flesh-bag," said Starscream.

"It's Sergeant Epps to you, if you expect to be called Starscream, " Said Epps.

"Lord Starscream!" Hissed the Decepticon.

"Don't push it!" growled Epps. "All right if that's your title, but it doesn't mean we've surrendered!" he sighed. "Washrooms 'this away, an'you can borrow our car wax and glass polish, and I've got in your special Stealth coating solvent cleaner."

Seeing he was catered for, Starscream followed him, with Bumblebee carrying Sam and Ratchet carrying some formula. He would have liked to help negotiate , but Sam was technically his patient at the moment and his main priority. Optimus Prime took the others into the debriefing room which was big enough for any size robots or any number of humans.

It had a screen up and Barricade and Swindle were there, so they were on the receiving end of Judy's full wrath.

"Ok Officer, and you Mr tough cookie Jerk salesman, what did you do to my boy? Where 've you hidden him? What Happened?"

Caught off guard Swindle launched into his prepared explanation.

"There was a pile -up on the Freeway. I saw it from my car."

"I think this was more than an accident "said Ron "and if you don't fix it up you're going to be on the end of one hell of a citation from us!"

Swindle's holoform flickered and rezzed out as he transformed into 16 feet of pissed off red robot with one glowing red eye, with which he now spotlighted the little round human who was threatening him with a fleshy finger, coming down close as Optimus had done when he first met Sam, but flashing with anger and not caring interest.

"I am a Decepticon! Yess I admit it I hurt your son but he killed Megatron our leader and we are at war with your miserable planet!"

"I didn't mean to!" called Sam hearing the raised voices of his father and Swindle, jumping out of Bumblebee's arms and half running and half flying into the de-briefing room to defend his family. "I just wanted to stop them fighting! He was threatening the planet and the Universe beyond, including your All Spark which he only wanted to use for power and destruction when it brings life, I wish there had been another way! No, no no no no no no no no, don't kill them!"

He ran between his Dad and Swindle, who was powering up his weapons and his battle armour was snapping up.

"Way to go, Sam, I believe it's you now, I'll back you up, you did what you had to, I was there!" cried Mikaela who had come straight from work in her coveralls, waving a torque wrench she often carried. Judy, coming to the same conclusion, stopped screaming and picked up one of the lawn chairs they had been about to sit in and thrust it in front of her husband and her now metal-clad little winged son who was facing down the barrel of the largest gun he had ever seen!


End file.
